Software engineer Tran Thanh Binh from the Central Highland province of Dak Lak has developed a programme that translates the languages of 12 ethnic groups in Viet Nam. (Photo: VNS)

And after the Vnkey software became available nation-wide, users hailed him as a "cultural hero" and praised his love for ethnic languages and his great passion for IT. Vnkey provides typing facilities for languages of the 12 ethnic groups such as Ede, Bana, M'nong, San only, K'ho, J'rai

In 2010, Binh received a Viet Nam Talent Award for producing the software, a major milestone for the Hue university graduate who was drawn by his passion for the highland people to teach at their Tay Nguyen University.

Binh said it was there he got the idea to build the typing software to support education and civil management.

He had found during his many years in remote areas that ethnic people learned best in their own language and there was a need for something to help them understand their lessons.

He also realised that commune officials had difficulties typing information of ethnic people into their data banks, such as names, addresses.

In four years from 2003, Binh studied the languages and coded Vnkey, spending all his savings and salary to buy resource materials.

He called on IT experts and researchers of ethnic group languages to help him research digital information because in Viet Nam there was no Vietnamese multilingual keyboard. The first typing version was published in 2007.

"Vnkey is an integrated software which required high technology knowledge and enthusiasm to create," Binh said. "I was determined to build it as a gift to the ethnic groups."

Le Van Thuat, officer of Krong Bong District's Yangreh Commune, said, "Binh came to my commune many times to install new processes and debug mistakes. He was very enthusiastic to improve Vnkey.

"He has made it very user-friendly and it improves my speed and accuracy. Before Vnkey was built, all information had to be written by hand. It was very laborious and difficult."

Vinkey is used by a great number of people including students, staff in 165 wards and more than 2,800 merchants in villages of the Central Highland province of Dak Lak.

The typing application also helps to break the language barrier for teachers who can now type bilingual lessons, said Ysaphone Nie Knong, vice-headmaster of the Highland Nationalities Vocational College.

After Vnkey, Binh continued to code the Tay Nguyen dictionary which focused on ethnic minorities, including Viet-Ede, Viet-M'Nong, Viet-J'rai, Viet-Bana with thousands of fascinating illustrations.

Y Ghi Nie, director of the Dak Lak Department of Science and Technology, said Binh knew little about Ede and Bana languages. To code the dictionary application, he went through a steep learning curve and had to seek the help of language consultants.

The dictionary has an integrated Vnkey typing application; there is no need to install Vnkey, Nie said.

Pham Thanh Liem, director of Dak Lak Centre for Computing and Information Science and Technology, said the full multi-media dictionary application was "precious".

Vnkey had promoted Binh to cultural hero status for preserving the intangible cultural heritage of the country and humanity, Liem said.

"This is my brain-child," Binh said proudly. "Now, everyday, there are about 1000 internet visitors to the Vnkey site link http://www.pcworld. com.vn

"I wished to give people a useful tool with an on-line application, so I am pleased to be supported by user communities."

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News

Footnote: Vnkey 2010 is able to run on all Windows generations including Windows Vista, Windows 7 32-bit, 64 bit and takes only 1.2 Mb storage.